You speak as though this is a bad thing. — Thorongil

I am a strong supporter of gay rights and was before I knew my daughter is gay. I have no animosity and some sympathy toward those who disagree with my beliefs. Still, I thought Ms. Bryant's affiliation is worth mentioning in the context of this discussion.

Today, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Trump flies to Florida and plays golf rather than partaking in 'a day of service'. I suppose we shouldn't read anything into that.

Yes, we should read into that that Trump is a dick head.

No, we shouldn't. He golfs all the time, especially on *gasp* holidays. But thanks for finding the time today, in between your busy charitable work, for posting that comment.

To be honest I didn’t even know it was a tradition. And to be fair, no one is taking cues from me. I’m not the leader of the free world.

Let's be honest donald trump has committed several racist acts and gotten away with more than the met police did. We need to be frank and call him what he is, racist.

I think regardless of the truth of his statement, Trump calling countries "shitholes" is going to make it difficult to have amiable foreign relations with these countries. Nobody likes their country being called a shithole, especially if it's not primarily your fault that it's a shithole and even moreso if you are trying very hard to make things less of a shithole.

Why do we call these countries "third-world" or "developing" countries instead of "shithole" countries? Because it's disrespectful, ahistorical and imperialistic to call them shitholes when the white man was instrumental in making many of these places the shitholes they are.

Even those terms have seen backlash for being disrespectful, even though they're true, just as Haiti being a shithole is true.

Trump has been in a lose-lose situation with the media for a long time. He could do everything right and still get shit. Just the way things will be.

Why do we call these countries "third-world" or "developing" countries instead of "shithole" countries? Because it's disrespectful, ahistorical and imperialistic to call them shitholes when the white man was instrumental in making many of these places the shitholes they are. — darthbarracuda

Of course it's impolitic to call Africa a shithole, especially when you consider just how large and varied Africa is. It's too blunt a shorthand term. Yes, it probably will make diplomacy more difficult for the United States for a while.

And its also the case that many of the problems in these various barely functioning states are a result of very, very bad colonial management. The Belgians fucked over their Congo territory, then left without having contributed much positive benefit. The Dutch, Germans, French, British, and Americans have all operated along similar lines, though maybe not quite as bad as the Belgians.

Empire, whether it be the Ottomans, Russians, Chinese, Moslems, or whoever is usually not popular out in the provinces. Reasonably so -- Empires generally don't exist for the benefit of the provinces: they exist for the benefit of the Imperial center.

But it's also the case that countries (made of people who are, after all, pretty much all alike) can and do make their own sub-optimum situations worse; much worse, quite often. Oligarchy, autocracy, corruption, neglect, and so on don't have to be taught by imperial powers. Little old isolated tribal groups can think up bad behavior on their own, and generally do.

Postcolonial structural violence can be traced back to the epistemic consequences of imperalism where the social conditions of uncivilised 'savages' attempt to redevelop their lost ontology by reforming the conditions of being that attempt to trace back their identity to what they were before the imperialism along with the current sociopolitical conditions; it is like attempting to force democracy on peoples who are largely used to tribalism. It doesn't make tribalism a shithole.

I think there were a myriad of reasons for people to vote for Trump. As long as it wasn't Hillary played a big role. Beliefs in economic models. Gay rights, legalisation of drugs and other social progressive issues people were against. Fear of the economy and the Other. I suspect a lot of people voted for him despite expecting him to be a problematic candidate and some voted for him despite their belief/suspicion he was a racist. It can't be but a minority who voted for him that did so specifically for his bigotry and mysogyny. I'd personally just suspect more people to be up in arms about it but that's just projection from the political system I'm used to in the Netherlands. — Benkei

Yes, these and other reasons contributed to Trump's election. Racism and xenophobia also played a role, of course, but his victory should not be reduced entirely to those things. The purpose of pushing that narrative, I think, is to deflect attention away from some of the legitimate grievances average Americans--and not just uneducated, ignorant white Americans--rightly feel against the dominant political, social and economic ruling class.

That widespread discontentment with the political status quo, along with the destabilizing sense that the culture and values of society are shifting rapidly, has led to a certain nostalgia for the good old days in which things may not have been perfect, but for many blue collar Americans they were much better. Practical things like finding a relatively stable and decent-paying job, purchasing a home, going to college without getting too far in debt, etc. are all far more rare now than they were 20-30-40 years ago.

Added to those basic material concerns is the impression--not entirely unfounded--that those who are in charge of things feel contempt for you and your lack of culture and sophistication. They mock you for your alleged racism and xenophobia while they live in cloistered neighborhoods, go on month long trips overseas, send their own kids to $40,000 a year private high schools, etc. I'd imagine it's fairly easy to be virtuous when you're in that genuinely privileged predicament.

So, along with rapidly diminishing prospects of material success for you and your children, there's a heightened sense of resentment felt towards the elites who have zero sympathy for your plight, who feel that this is the best of all possible worlds, and who treat you and all that you hold dear in a condescending and dismissive way.

And finally, I've mentioned it in other threads, but Democrats seem to have turned their backs on working class folk some time ago and opted instead for an odd coalition of their wealthy benefactors and marginalized groups. They don't even try to cultivate a broader working class narrative that could rally ALL less financially secure members of society together (other than Bernie Sanders), and they seem to purposely vilify older, less affluent white people as the source of the nation's problems. Why would this demographic vote for a party that wants nothing to do with them?

On the flip side, traditional small government Republicans have manipulated these same people through the use of various social and cultural issues to vote against their economic interests over the years. They've largely supported free trade agreements and outsourcing jobs (while simultaneously appealing to the patriotism of the masses and launching aggressive wars largely fought by them), mass immigration primarily in order to drive down labor costs for business owners, the scaling back of any remaining social programs which may benefit the poor or less fortunate in times of need, and the like.

In other words, they're up the creek without a paddle. Into this malaise comes Trump, who apparently ran numerous focus groups to find out what the major concerns of "average" Americans were. He's a lying, greedy, malicious douche, but he claimed to care about these people when nobody else did. All bullshit, there's little doubt about that, but the options were limited.

It's obviously more complex than this, but I do think we should consider the options available to the people who voted for Trump as possibly mitigating at least a small amount of the hatred we may feel for them.

Are you trying to parody your typical postmodernist journal article's abstract?

Trump: "I am not a racist"
Nixon: "I am not a crook"

Two shitheads.

And finally, I've mentioned it in other threads, but Democrats seem to have turned their backs on working class folk some time ago and opted instead for an odd coalition of their wealthy benefactors and marginalized groups. They don't even try to cultivate a broader working class narrative that could rally ALL less financially secure members of society together (other than Bernie Sanders), and they seem to purposely vilify older, less affluent white people as the source of the nation's problems. Why would this demographic vote for a party that wants nothing to do with them? — Erik

The utter ineptitude of Trump as a leader, his ignorance, racism, over the top narcissism and the Russian help he got all make it too easy for the democrats not to be critical of themselves. And the focus that a lot of the supporters of Trump are racist neonazis doesn't help either here.

First and foremost, the wife of an earlier President was a disasterous choice for the DNC to start with. That Bernie Sanders got so much support tells how bad the choice of Hillary Clinton was for the democrats. Hillary Clinton losing to Obama ought to have told a lot to the DNC.

A populist law and order candidate promising to root out corruption in Washington would have gotten a lot of support as the message would be favourable to both right leaning and left leaning voters. The cluelessness of Trump is evident that he was surprised that the "Drain the swamp" message got so much popularity. Because if there are things that unite a lot of Americans, they are the distrust of the political establishment and the disgust of the basically legalized corruption.

If Trump wouldn't be as incompetent as he is and play for the rich elite as he does, his kind of fascism-lite could easily gain a lot of support. Luckily he is as incompetent as he is.

First and foremost, the wife of an earlier President was a disasterous choice for the DNC to start with. That Bernie Sanders got so much support tells how bad the choice of Hillary Clinton was for the democrats. Hillary Clinton losing to Obama ought to have told a lot to the DNC. — ssu

She better stay away at the next election, like she said she would.

No, we shouldn't. He golfs all the time, especially on *gasp* holidays. But thanks for finding the time today, in between your busy charitable work, for posting that comment. — Thorongil

Oh, stop with the apologism. He's outraged at those who do not stand for the national anthem, yet he fucks off and plays golf on such an important day? He is an odious man.

I think the issue most people have with Trump's golfing is his hypocrisy.

Donald is a hypocrite, of course, which is such a rarity among people. But really, there are so many reasons to hang DT beside golfing on MLK day. There will be a huge squabble at the gallows trying to decide for which crime he hangs first, like bothering to run for president at all.

Trump: "I am not a racist" — Cavacava

I am a genius. I gor 30/30 in my test.

Questions
1. What colour is blood
a, red, b blue

2. What are clothes made of?
a cloth, b shit.

3.Which is sweeter.
a sugar b shit

4. What smells worse
a peanut butter b shit

5 Which is hotter
a the sun b shit
etc....

This is the cognitive test the president passed

Really??
LOL!
Hardly makes him a fucking genius.
Spell Rhinoceros!!
Fuck!

I don't think he believes he is a racist.

There is a type of racism that does not believe it is racist. People who are not overtly racist in their dealings with others (perhaps this is why they think they are not racist), but who in their private conversations with other like minded, are blatantly and disparagingly racist. Go to most any local service club and listen to their private conversations. Many of these organizations have bake sales for the poor, gather turkeys to distribute or have Christmas Trees sales and so forth and I think they mean to do good, but in private with others of their ilk, they shed their pretense and enjoy their bigoted sense of superiority. Archie is not gone, he is just no longer blatant in public, he's on the down low.

If that makes any sense.

Florida has approximately 425,000 people of Haitian origin in its population, more than twice that of any other state. The few Haitians I have spoken to are very upset with the Trump's characterization of Haiti.

Let's look at some of Mr. Trump's words and actions in the course of his presidency:

• He characterised Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals.
• He pardoned Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who was convicted in federal court of using, in an unacceptable way, racial profiling.
• He responded to a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville by referring to some fine people.
• When there was violence afterwards, he said there was blame on many sides.
• He retweeted anti-Muslim propaganda videos from an extreme far right British organisation.

This is a pattern.

(Quoting Stephen Sackur on HARDtalk).

The US seems to be in a most tragic decline.
I just watched David Letterman's latest. He interviewed Obama for his first programme.
This is no reflection on Obama, but he represents the failure of the US system. A man of intelligence, who genuinely cared about inequality and poverty found himself impotent to do anything about it.
He was pilloried and traduced for eight years whilst the media grilled him over hot coals.
And the US's response to the end of his term is a megalomaniac, narcissistic moron, who is now taking credit for what little Obama was able to do in re-booting the economy, and giving his family a massive inheritance tax-break, at the expense of the poorest.

Holy hypocrisy, batman!

Listened to part of his broadcast. Got to the part about Obama saying Libya is a "Shit Show" which he said after Qaddafi's death in regards to acceleration of violence in that country. Obama didn't characterize Libya or any other country as a "shit hole" as Trump is alleged to have said, also Obama's words were widely reported and quoted. There wasn't an uproar because what Obama said described the situation.

I don't think he believes he is a racist. — Cavacava

He might not know what the actual definition of a racist is.

Who would know?